Now that you have been introduced to the
components of CMMI models, you need to understand how they fit together to
meet your process improvement needs. This chapter introduces the concept
of levels and shows how the process areas are organized and used.
It also discusses some of the key concepts that are significant for
applying a CMMI model in the context of service-related work.

CMMI-SVC does not specify that a project or
organization must follow a particular process flow or that a certain
number of services be delivered per day or specific performance targets be
achieved—only that they have processes in place for adequately addressing
service-related practices. To determine whether these adequate processes
are in place, a project or organization maps its processes to the process
areas contained in this document.

The mapping of processes to process areas
enables service providers to track their progress against the CMMI-SVC
model as they implement processes. It is not intended that every process
area of the CMMI-SVC will map one to one with a given organization’s or
project’s
processes.